Smacking the Mackems

History has indicated that Arsenal are not always great travellers across the north/south divide. Trips to the frozen wastes of Sunderland have not always ended in victory for us gunners so it was imperative that we applied ourselves in the appropriate manner.

A manner that is similar, in fact pretty damn identical to trying very hard, very very hard indeed.

After a Wednesday night that really made the world sit up and pay young Jack some attention, it was nothing less than essential that our roaming, international superstars settled back into the old routine and performed at the top level to get a result against hardworking, organised, bullish Sunderland.

Martin O’Neill’s stock is at all time low at the moment. There was a time when he was considered Sir Alex’s replacement, but in my opinion his nomadic managerial career in recent years has put paid to that – at least for now. I’d like to think we put an extra nail in that coffin, but I think its already well and truly buried and David Moyes is urinating on the gravestone.

We always looked dangerous throughout and it took a smart finish from Cazorla to break the deadlock. Considering the positions Santi gets in, he doesn’t put enough of them away I think. On this occasion he didn’t disappoint however and saved the blushes of Giroud who, whilst threatening throughout, failed to find the back of the net.

Sailing was plain until Corporal Jenkinson had a second rush of blood and received a deserved second yellow. All hell broke loose on twitter with tweets full of bile directed at a lad who, before today was being lauded as Sagna’s ready-made replacement. Some even suggested that with Sagna struggling to return to his amazing form pre-double leg break that perhaps Jenks should be given a shot.

You can’t say that and then spit bile about him. You lose all integrity. He made two poor decisions, but he’s young and he’ll learn. Ironically, his poor performance was highlighted by a fantastic performance from Sagna at right centre-back. He was moved inside after Koscielny injured himself in the warm-up.

Sagna and Mertesacker had a great game and Sczcesny topped it off with an excellent performance. That’s where us writers have a responsibility to be more level-headed. He was excellent today, but in his previous fixtures before Stoke he looked like he couldn’t catch a cold, let alone a football.

Special mention goes to Rambo who once again did a great job. He also filled in at right back with a calm assurance.

Discussion (6) ¬

Thanks for your comments. Whilst it does not bother me too much what you think, it is a shame that you didn’t enjoy your visit here. Perhaps you could visit more often and enjoy reading about a team that wins more games and plays better football than your striped cart horses.

How do u no hes a mackem!…. While I admit arsenal are a famous club with good history and technically miles better than us mackems. I do think the gooners are on a slippery slopewith one of the poorest squads ive seen from arsenal in years. Tottenham im my opinion are now above arsenal in terms of quality and will take more future honours. U should come up our ‘wasteland’ of a city and see a real derby with more passion than ulot could ever dream of….i would not trade our ‘carthorses’ for technique if it meant going to watch arsenal and be so delerious that u think u can mix it with the big 4 clubs that era has gone. Your just a selling club like us lot now. Well done to arsenal on saturday

I like some of your arrangements for the Zep, but on the whole I find the music of the Zep tedious, sub-prog rock grunting.

Instead of parrotting what you read in the papers and the richard the third-hand recycled opinions/gospels of Saints Lawro, Shearer, and Savage(!); why don’t you form your own opionion? The results haven’t gone our way with the likes of ManUamerica, the Qataris, and Russian Blues, but aside from the ManUamerica game, the others were won by margins; we were unlucky to come away with a draw from the ‘Etihad’, and but for the theatrics and gamesmanship of the hitherto unpunished Ramires, we wouldn’t have had a 2-0 deficit at the scum’s ground, notwithstanding the Jekyll & Hyde performance in either half from the players.
I won’t bother responding to the nonsense wind-up of your belief about the Spuds funded by a tax-exile.

Also, nobody insulted the city of Sunderland, certainly nobody’s has suggested it is a ‘wasteland’ – although I would happily claim such a description for the Seven Sisters end where our geographic rivals squat – but surely you should be questioning how can the team pull off such results as boxing the Blue Scum of Fulham in their own back yard play a style of football that could not be more different to the fare that seems to be offered up on such a regular basis home and away?

I like O’Neill, but he does seem to have developed a tendency at his last couple of clubs to let the pressure build up until the point it starts to have an impact on the players, which in turn influences the team performances. The wider issue I think faces Sunderland is that if O’Neill starts to begin to doubt himself, his players, and the directors’ support, he’ll walk away, and you could end up with the likes of somebody like McLeish.